Army docs, IAF assist in heart transplant surgery

Chandigarh, January 13

Army doctors and the Indian Air Force came forward to assist a critically ill patient by retrieving the heart of a donor at Chandigarh and ferrying it to New Delhi for transplanting it into a critically ill patient at the Army’s Research and Referral (RR) Hospital today.

A team of Army doctors harvested the heart of a donor at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, Army sources said. The harvested organ was airlifted to New Delhi by an IAF Dornier aircraft in the early hours of Saturday, they added.

The recipient was admitted to RR Hospital, where the transplant surgery was performed, thereby giving him a fresh lease of life.

On January 11, liver and kidneys of a 15-year old brain dead daughter of an Army jawan had been harvested by the Command Hospital in Chandimandir and the IAF airlifted them to Delhi, thus helping save the lives of two persons.